Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1887-01-30

old granny in the poor house or some
fne that had married again and the step
father wasn't agreeable, but somehow the
ceiling got universal that she was fine
woman and good as the letters she wrote.
| used TO see respectable, middle-aged
looking women getting out OF the stage,
redden up or turn pale at the staring
they got, and good-looking women had to
run the gauntlet of the camp, and you
would hear bets freely taken Mart
Crccker's mother had come this time sure.
The stage drivers used to laugh and say:
"rwsn't the young women Rolllnstown
was interested in, but middle-aged to
right down old 'uns, with widders at a
premium"
After while Mart got great notion OF
riding down to Evergreen, town twenty
miles below on the trail. tOrsee some
thing was up, and one day in his cabin
ginned him bout it. "Gal down there"
| said careless like.
He was whiting kIndlings for his
mornings fire. Isee him yet setting side
OF the brick hearth, the light from the
burning pine logs Pickering over his
face and curly head, and that pretty boy
lsh look OF his as innocent and trustful as
a birds.
Nv ell" says he slow, "there is young
lady down there like"
'GOng to get married? 2" veutured.
81 haven't asked her yeU," he says,
kinder blushing.
"Whatr' says l, you've been hoofng
il down twenty miles on snow shoes, and
riding the same distance on hard gated
mule and never said word of getting
married; but you done some sparkling,
Mart, faint naterel you jest set like &C
quaintances."
'We Jest set like acquaintance" he
says, laughing, "but you'd done the
same; she's the shyest little thing, like a
violet in the woods. She has big blue ewes
that look at you so appealing, and such
modest, quiet little ways"
Folks living" asks, for he quilt talk
ing and looked into the fire. the bright,
hopeful expression on his face making
him mighty taking.
"She's all alone in the world" he says,
sand a working girl, keeps a millinery
shop at Evergreen and works so hard,
such pretty boDnets and hats she makes,
too, | don't wonder ladies want them,
she's so dainty and nice. Pll tell you in
confidence, Tom, l've good thing up in
Lost Gold Canon, and believe I'll strike
it ROB, and then there will be enough for
mother and her."
Think your mother will like herr" |
said.
chow can she help 1t, mother is 80 good
and noble, and Nelly is 80 gentle and
winning.
"Nelly-ahW l saws.
1.-The name got away, didn't mean to
tell" he laughs, and then he set there
over an hour telling his plans and hopes
and how he wanted to meet his mother
and take his Nelly to her. 1t was like
story hooks, his talk, and when | went to
my cabin nigh Rose Martins, where the
peddler who'd been in camp day or two
was raising Cain, sorter sickened at
the racket. Lord, I've seen them rough
women start aud blush and choke up
when he'd answer their rough talk in
his manly, friendly way. Seems to me
a decent young teller like Mart, as
want no prIg, is better nor sermon
every time.
About that morning some one rap
ped to nay door and hollered to me to go to
Martins where the peddler was dying. |
got on my clothes and went over. There
was q big crowd In the street, and lying
on mattress in the middle of circle of
lockers on was the peddler, q thin, oldish
man, looking like a foreigner. They'd
brought him outside for air. He was
gasping and muttering some queer foreign
lingo, and 1t didn't seem i was there a
minute before his head fell back and he
was dead; face turned almost black. too.
No one knowed what allied him, the doctor
being down to Evergreen, but we buried
him right oil By daylight, and no one ever
knowed where he was from or his name.
Rose Martin was too drunk TO know and
so were the rest of the gang. The death
scared them creeturs so they kept in
Iiquer all the time and steps were taken
to rid the town OF them, when Dandy
NJ Ike told me accidental that Rose Martin
WAS down sick and all her friends mad
deserted her, and they said she was
lO0ney IKE the peddler. Mart
heered US a talking. but be never said
nothing, jest going up to his cabin.
Pretty soon he came back with some
bottles.
Tom" he says, ''for my sake 90 down
to Evergreen for the doctor. Pli pay
everything. Pm going to that poor
creature. I'd be a fiend to hear
her pitiful cries for water and not help
her."
But you don't know what ails her; it
might be catching" | says holding his
arm. He pushed me gently aside.